Yellow Pages Canada offering content mill rates for app writing work

CMG Freelance is advising freelance writers across Canada not to accept work from Yellow Pages that pays in the range of 6 to 9 cents per word. Story Board has heard from several highly experienced writers who were approached by Yellow Pages Canada last week with an offer to write “Smart Lists” for Yellow Pages’ […]

Posted on August 14, 2015 at 9:00 am by editor · LEAVE A COMMENT · Tagged with: , , , , ,

The Born Freelancer on Interning for Free

 This series of posts by the Born Freelancer shares personal experiences and thoughts on issues relevant to freelancers. Have something to add to the conversation? Your input is welcome in the comments.    Whenever I read stories about corporate media insisting they have no money to pay their hard working interns (such as Derek Finkle’s […]

Posted on April 17, 2014 at 9:05 am by editor · LEAVE A COMMENT · Tagged with: , , ,

The Unpaid Internship Conspiracy

Why Toronto Life’s first intern backs the Ontario labour ministry in shutting down the magazine’s twenty-one-year-old internship program and others that don’t pay   by Derek Finkle I won’t lie: when John Macfarlane called me in May of 1993 and offered me a four-month internship at Toronto Life, the magazine he then edited, I was overcome. I […]

Posted on March 31, 2014 at 9:15 am by editor · 18 Comments · Tagged with: , , ,

Crackdown on unpaid internships a positive step, but the collective struggle must continue

  This week, the Ontario Ministry of Labour told The Walrus and Toronto Life to bring their internship programs into compliance with the Employment Standards Act (ESA). Both publications had a long history of offering full time, months-long, unpaid internships for contributing to the main work of the publication. Instead of apologizing and figuring out […]

Posted on March 28, 2014 at 2:20 pm by editor · LEAVE A COMMENT · Tagged with: , , , , ,

What to charge for your writing

by Rachel Sanders When you’re offered a juicy writing assignment, sometimes the fee seems less important than the experience, the enjoyment, or the byline you’re expecting to get out of it. But as you move along in your writing career, it’s important to consider what your time is worth. If you want to freelance full-time, […]

Posted on January 9, 2014 at 9:05 am by editor · LEAVE A COMMENT · Tagged with: , , , ,

Pay the Writers (and other ideas on the potential of the Internet)

by Andrea Hoff   The Internet is not only a place of connectivity, it is also a place that is constantly morphing and changing. That is something as writers we can use to our advantage. If we can use the Internet in solidarity, we have the ability to change the current conversation. This was one […]

Posted on November 28, 2013 at 9:15 am by editor · LEAVE A COMMENT · Tagged with: , ,

Yes, we are worthy: making it in the freelance world

Hey you lucky, lucky Toronto freelancers, there’s another great event coming up for you in September. Yes, we are worthy: making it in the freelance world will be an evening of discussion with bestselling author Ann Douglas (writer of the popular Story Board post “Why I Am No Longer Writing The Column I Loved for The Toronto Star“) and Nicole […]

Posted on September 6, 2013 at 9:05 am by editor · LEAVE A COMMENT · Tagged with: , ,

Canadian Intern Association holds first Vancouver meeting

The Canadian Intern Association is holding its first Vancouver meeting tonight at the Firehall Branch of the public library. The Association was founded last year by University of Ottawa law student Claire Seaborn, who noticed a dearth of advocacy groups to address the growing problem of illegal unpaid internships. Over the past year, the group has launched a Claim Back […]

Posted on August 28, 2013 at 9:03 am by editor · LEAVE A COMMENT · Tagged with: , , , ,

Unpaid internships under the microscope at last

It seems as though the issue of unpaid internships has reached a breaking point this summer. The watershed Black Swan ruling last month appears to have led to a flood of lawsuits by former interns alleging breach of labour laws. U.S. publishers Gawker and Condé Nast have been hit with intern lawsuits over the past few weeks. And here […]

Posted on July 4, 2013 at 9:05 am by editor · LEAVE A COMMENT · Tagged with: , ,

Striking Saint John 7 hit one-year anniversary

  Today is a big day for the Saint John 7. One year ago — on June 25, 2012 — the seven radio employees began their strike against the Halifax-based Maritime Broadcasting System after trying for almost a year to negotiate a fair wage. Lise Lareau, National Vice-President of the Canadian Media Guild, wrote a post […]

Posted on June 25, 2013 at 8:05 am by editor · 2 Comments · Tagged with: , , , ,